Author Archives: Joel D. Hirst

About Joel D. Hirst

Joel D. Hirst is a novelist and a playwright. His most recently released work is "Dreams of the Defeated: A Play in Two Acts" about a political prisoner in a dystopian regime. His novels include "I, Charles, From the Camps" about the life of a young man in the African camps and "Lords of Misrule" about the making and unmaking of a jihadist in the Sahara. "The Lieutenant of San Porfirio" and its sequel "The Burning of San Porfirio" are about the rise and fall of socialist Venezuela (with magic).

To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #6 – Compassion)

Posted on November 11, 2019

You say you have compassion; social consciousness which sets you above the rest. You rail at injustice (sometimes real though often perceived through your oh-so perfected filters of subjugation). You vote the right way, you march during the great mobilizations … Continue reading →

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The Untold Story of Cuba

Posted on November 9, 2019

Originally posted on Joel D. Hirst's Blog:
Have you ever seen a painting so beautiful that it stops your heart for a second; reds and greens and golds imprinted upon your essence for eternity? Do you ever listen to…

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To Protect Us From Who We Are Becoming

Posted on November 2, 2019

In youth we rebel. We look around at what we instinctively know as good, and we sneer at it – for it is not exciting; it does not speak to us of danger or achievement, mountains conquered or sins at … Continue reading →

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Will It Be Enough?

Posted on November 1, 2019

Streets are charged, electric; Milling crowds are hectic; The rage it does now overflow; The violence is pyrectic. Boy he lifts a rock; Inserts it in his sock; Around, around his head does go; To ‘nother lad doth knock. Vendor … Continue reading →

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The October Storm and After

Posted on October 24, 2019

There is something nostalgic and haunting about soviet literature. I often wonder why that is…? How did writers participating in a project as wicked as that one harness the written word to such a degree as to be able to … Continue reading →

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I Come From Homer

Posted on October 20, 2019

What responsibility does a writer have to the world around him? Should he be good, and kind? Faithful and free and gentle? Should he suffer the little children and fight for the weak and make common cause with the powerless? … Continue reading →

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For Whom the Bell Tolls – A Review

Posted on October 6, 2019

There is a certain amount of nostalgia and some sadness in Hemingway’s best novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. How could there not be? It’s about the Spanish Civil War; that most terrible of events pitting the bad against the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Literature, philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments